Natives versus Settlers: the Esopus Wars, 1659-1663

People who don't learn their history are doomed to repeated it.  Dutch colonists in New Netherlands had already discovered the truth of this, when demanding and disrespectful treatment of local Wappinger and Delaware Natives led to Kieft's War in 1643-45.  The lessons learned in this conflict didn't stick for long, as the same mistrust and misunderstanding would lead to two more conflicts and ultimately the Dutch decision to sell their interests in North America to the British.

The Esopus were a local band of Lenape/Delaware Natives, living in the Catskill Mountains in what is now Sullivan and Ulster Counties.  They were not willing to share their land with outsiders and were alarmed at the numbers of Europeans coming into the area.  In c 1614, Dutch colonists attempted to set up a factory, or trading posted headed by an agent or factor, in the area of present-day Kingston.  The first attempt was aborted after Natives attacked the post.  In 1658, the Dutch returned, built a stockade and made it clear they weren't going anywhere this time.  Their attitude toward the local Natives was one of automatic suspicion and hostility, and vice versa.  On September 20, 1659, some Esopus men who had been hired for farm work were paid out in brandy.  They became drunk and one of them fired a weapon into the air.  No harm was intended but the Settlers used this as a pretext to attack and kill several of the workers.  Furious, the attack became general, with hundred of warriors arriving to avenge those killed.  Finally. New Amsterdam sent reinforcements and peace was restored, the Native agreeing to cede land in exchange for food and trade goods.

But not for long.  In 1563, the Dutch indicated their willingness to agree a treaty with the Esopus.  The Esopus decided the time had come for a preemptive strike.  They informed the Dutch emissaries that it was their custom to conduct negotiations in the open and unarmed.  The Dutch agreed and the gates of the fort at Kingston were left open.  Esopus warriors attacked another Dutch settlement at present-day Hurley and proceeded to do likewise at Kingston, carrying off some Settlers as captives.  The Dutch carried out reprisals, mostly against peaceful Wappinger, who hadn't been involved in the attack.  The Dutch barely managed to hold their own and in 1665 agreed a treaty with the Esopus, a copy of which survives today. 

However, the cost in money, men and material to hold the lands promised by the treaty proved to be too much.  The Dutch sold the land of what is today New Paltz, New York to Huguenot (French Protestant) refugees.  A year before, they had ceded the rest of New Netherlands to the British.  The British had a different policy of working with Native people, including the use of treaties to clearly delineate what land belonged to whom, and, at that time, generous use of money and trade goods to cement diplomacy with local tribes.  It wouldn't be long, though, before conflicts broke out again between local tribes and British colonists. King Phillip's War in Massachusetts was just a decade away, in 1675.